When Apps Go Bad: Another Reason Not To Allow Any Old App Access To Your Twitter

When you click a link in spam direct messages, you put your Twitter at risk (of sending others the same spam direct messages). But you know this already because you read our previous post, so you don’t do that anymore.

And there’s another way you’re putting your Twitter – and your reputation – at risk: By allowing any ‘ol third party app access to your Twitter, just so you can sign in to various platforms with one click.

But what happens when apps go bad and start tweeting lies on from your account?

What kind of crazy apps did these people grant access to for this to happen? Dictionaries.

Jenn Frank of Infinite Lives reports that Enfour, the company that publishes the $55 Oxford Dictionary of English (ODE) mobile phone app, accused her of pirating the app and that the app hijacked her Twitter account and started autoposting tweets that Jenn is a software thief.

But it has been fixed. You just need to update your app, supposedly. And they’ve apologized too. Kind of. The page is no longer available, so we can’t quote it – but we can tell you this: People were none too pleased with it.

And although they claim this bug has been fixed, what does that mean exactly? As asked below, have they removed the feature or just updated the trigger? Can the “piracy bug” still invade your privacy? And why did they really need it to begin with?

Here are the most recent tweets this “bug” sends (in case you were curious) and check out the #softwarepirateconfession hashtag for more:

Wondering if your apps are affected? Here are some companies they’ve created apps for (from their website). Not sure if it’s a complete list. But if you’ve sent a #softwarepirateconfession, then we guess you’ll know!